Surfacing Moral Justice Communication in/through Folklore in Aklan West District: An Ethnographic Inquiry

Abstract

This qualitative communication inquiry aimed to gather, transcribe, translate, thematize, and analyze the oral literature originating from the municipalities of Ibajay and Nabas through the lenses of socio-cultural tradition and the discourse of understanding. To examine moral justice and its communicative aspect within the sociocultural context of Ibajay and Nabas, the emerging themes from the six collected and compiled local stories were identified and analyzed employing the indigenous communicative and cultural ecology frameworks. Dialogues, thoughts, actions, motifs, and symbols all functioned as foundations in the exploration of the embodiments and discursive strategies in communicating moral justice.

From the communicative perspective, themes serve to strengthen the narratives by foregrounding the instantiations and representations of moral justice communication. Moral justice is the fundamental ethical framework that regulates moral responsibility, providing direction to people in their efforts to engender fairness, compassion, and righteousness. By fulfilling their ethical duties diligently, people actively contribute to the creation of a fair and just society, fostering an atmosphere marked by equity, accountability, and mutual respect. Moral justice communication in folklore not only provides education and amusement but also functions as an ethical barometers, shaping individual conduct and reinforcing social norms and moral principles.

Six local oral stories were collected in the municipalities of Ibajay and Nabas in Aklan West District. These stories are Binaliwan (The Curse), Ro Tuburan it Malindog (The Waterfall of Malindog), Si Pili, Amaranhig, Barko nga Bato (The Stone Ship), and Pagtuo (The Faith). The ethno-narratives and moral teachings in the collated stories of Aklan West District offer profound insights into the embodiments of moral justice (e.g., multispecies justice, divine justice, retributive and vindictive Justice, distributive justice, intergenerational justice) and the diverse discursive ways they were conveyed (e.g., didactic or instructive strategy, collocation and conjunctions, perspectivation, referential nomination, intensification, and individualism). Each narrative discursively communicates the embodiments and representations of moral justice in a way that is deeply intertwined with the community's cultural norms, spiritual traditions, and ethical standpoints.